Anyone with 300+ MBS up/down, fiber optic to 5gb high speed router try and use Cat8 Network cable

[Ramstein]

Anyone with 300+ MBS up/down, fiber optic to 5gb high speed router try and use Cat8 Network cable? Question is does the Cat 8 networking (with RJ-45 connectors to the computer) help with the speed/bandwidth? I am putting new cables in soon. Also curious if it might help with my Firestick with the router wireless, the Cat8 will also feed the router. I am removing some Cat6 cable. I have an Orbi High Speed mesh router setup. Fiber Optic from my ISP.

[some1]

Are you sure you did not mix the units? Your fibre is probably 300Mbs, not 300MBs, and your router is probably 5GHz Wifi, not 5Gb transfer. And for these parameters Cat6 cable is more than enough.

[kksnowbear]

Cat5e is good enough for even gigabit (Gb) speeds.  As mentioned above, I am also doubtful you actually have 5Gbit service (especially if in a residence).  Not impossible, just not at all common.

Cat6 is good enough to 10Gb, which is well beyond what most homes have (even if they're on fiber, usually ~2Gb is the upper limit).

The house I'm in was prewired with CAT5e.  I have (only) one cable going from the closet where the service enters to upstairs where most all the computers are; this run is probably over 100-150'.  I have Gb service, and routinely get 1.25Gb on the machines upstairs via that CAT5e cable.  That wouldn't be possible unless CAT5e is capable of Gigabit speed (the distance limit is 328'/100m).

The connection going to the router is limited by your ISP, either from the modem (if you have one), from the outside interface panel, or whatever is next in the 'up line' - and is not likely greater than gigabit...

Realistically the only thing CAT8 cable will do in your scenario (with the assumptions listed) is most likely cost more

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by kksnowbear

[Dragon1-1]

Isn't Cat8 basically meant for short patch cables in datacenters and such? I would be vary of wiring a house with it, depending on how big it is, and on how the cables are routed, you could run into length limits. Even Cat6 is overkill unless you're one of the lucky few who can get a >1Gbit link in a residential property.

[kksnowbear]

Don't know what you mean by 'short' but CAT8 is good for 30 meters (~100 feet).

Still no real need for anything beyond CAT5e for almost any typical residential application (at least in the US).

Edited October 4, 2023 by kksnowbear

[BitMaster]

I use cat7 cables and cat6a ports and patchpanels.

the diff in price from 5 to 7 is marginal, so I made it 10gbit proof throughout the house.

cablelength does matter, see above chart. Better only go 75% of max length or use fiber

[kksnowbear]

1 hour ago, BitMaster said:

I use cat7 cables and cat6a ports and patchpanels.

the diff in price from 5 to 7 is marginal, so I made it 10gbit proof throughout the house.

cablelength does matter, see above chart. Better only go 75% of max length or use fiber

Smart...in my case, the house was already prewired by someone else and I can't get into the walls etc.  Or at least, I've been too lazy so far to do it

Can't say I've had any trouble with lengths.  As long as I've respected the distances within reason, I've gotten rated speed or better (unless something else was at issue).

[BitMaster]

I was preparing for the 10Gbit era that is slowly conquering the market with more modest prices.

I remember Token Ring on a Coax cable, that was my first LAN setup for EF2000 with MS-DOS...long time ago.

I have seen them coming and going, 10Mbit, 100Mbit, now 1Gbit as standard...but slowly we transit to 2.5~10Gbit in the next few years.

 

When I looked at the prices for cables and wall outlets etc...  the difference is peanuts. 112MB/sec is just WAY TO SLOW if you juggle large files around,

I feel like back in the days waiting for a 80GB drive to copy over a 100Mbit network, now it's 800GB over a 1Gbit networ, same lame duck.

With NVMe everywhere it's time for at least 10Gbit networks or even faster imho, at least between Workstations and NAS.

 

My ISP synchronizes with 1120Mbit on cable, so there is 120Mbit I can't use since my current router only has Gbit. Since I ordered Fiber 1Gbit with 4x the current upload I will

also get a new Router ( gonna buy it myself ) and that has a 2.5Gbit LAN, YES ! 

Edited October 4, 2023 by BitMaster

[kksnowbear]

I'll see your Token Ring, and raise you file transfer over a parallel cable (which was an upgrade over serial port LOL)...I actually had a plain old hub before I ever got my first router c.2000 (the 'outside' connections were still dialup before that...then we got 1.5Mb DSL woo-hoo!!)

All the cable I've bought and strung has been CAT6...but of course, that one run is the bottleneck.  I had hoped to be out of this place before it became an issue

Edited October 4, 2023 by kksnowbear

[BitMaster]

CAT6 will do a great  job if you stay with 50m cable length.

Oh hell yes, Hubs were a disaster and the first obtainable home office switches weren't that great either with their ARP Cache errors...not good if you play with networks.

When I recall the price of my old pair of 3Com-905 ISA card ( those with Coax and RJ45 ) I think a Dual 10Gbit Intel is a real bargain !

But tbh, I prefer DAS over NAS ever since for my own needs, so there is no real need for my personal network to do 10Gbit, just when I need to work and copy large file sets, usually Backups or whole drives a 10Gbit was awesome, but that would mean TWO adapters, also on the Client's PC which, unless a fairly modern server or WS, don't have that. So it's like back in the days...does it pay to put in a 10G card for 20min and copy the stuff over or let it just run on 1G and not open the case and not install the card....usually I had put in the 1G card back then.

Edited October 4, 2023 by BitMaster

[kksnowbear]

23 minutes ago, BitMaster said:

When I recall the price of my old pair of 3Com-905 ISA card ( those with Coax and RJ45 ) I think a Dual 10Gbit Intel is a real bargain !

LOL!! I had a couple of those 905 cards, up until we last moved in 2014.  It was heartbreaking to toss them

[cordite]

2 hours ago, BitMaster said:

I was preparing for the 10Gbit era that is slowly conquering the market with more modest prices...

 

It would be nice, but I’m not expecting the prices to become more modest anytime soon.

I finally received a ftth connection about a month ago, and they jacked the prices only a few days prior.

[BitMaster]

My FTTH sits curled up next to my doorstep. I hope they hook me up next few month, it seems they forgot to connect the last 2m to my wall under the stairway..LoL.

The poor guy who was tasked to drill it through the wall drove off undone twice as he ain't got the tools to do the ground digging work under my stairs and I am not allowed to do it, so be it

I have Gbit on cable 1120/55 Mbit which is ok, just for Cloud backups and stuff the FTTH with 4x the upload is just way better and same price, so I changed. They do the Fiber work for free, so that was  a good deal. I just need to rent it two years ( same money as cable/Vodafone ) and I can opt out again or use their fiber for any other ISP that offers FTTH.

Can't really complain about cable, a bit unstable last year when they did all the road works but overall..I can work remotely, which I do 95% of my time.